This intelligent Plex app may give your growing older LG TV a brand new lease on life

If in case you have an older LG TV that also has an ideal panel and movie high quality however a painfully sluggish UI, a brand new open-source Plex shopper may enable you to get extra out of it.

A developer has created a brand new app referred to as PlxNative, an unbiased Plex shopper constructed particularly for LG TVs operating webOS. Its fundamental objective is to make shopping by your Plex library really feel quick and responsive once more, even on older LG TVs.

The developer not too long ago shared particulars about PlxNative on Reddit, the place the mission has acquired some optimistic suggestions thus far. As somebody who has used LG TVs for years, I can relate to the issue the developer is attempting to resolve.

I’ve seen firsthand how growing older {hardware} can steadily make the software program expertise worse, even when the TV itself continues to be completely good. Plex’s personal boards have a long-running thread concerning the sluggish Plex UI on LG and Samsung TVs.

PlxNative’s developer bumped into the identical drawback with a 2019 LG TV. As an alternative of changing the TV or connecting one other streaming field simply to get a quicker Plex interface, they determined to construct their very own app.

PlxNative attracts the UI straight on the TV utilizing Rust and OpenGL. The developer says this retains the app light-weight and permits it to open in a couple of second, whereas scrolling and menus stay responsive.

The interface additionally makes use of translucent components that allow you to see paintings beneath the controls.

When you’re watching one thing, PlxNative helps the same old Plex options you’d anticipate. You may browse and search your library, swap between Plex House profiles, choose audio and subtitles, and use direct play or server transcoding when wanted. When an episode ends, the subsequent one can also be only a button press away.

The developer notes that PlxNative doesn’t substitute the TV’s video decoder, so playback depends on the {hardware} constructed into your explicit LG TV mannequin.

There’s one other helpful function for individuals who primarily use Plex on their house community.

After signing in to Plex initially, PlexNative can join on to your Plex Media Server over your native community. Meaning you possibly can proceed accessing your library even when your web connection goes down.

You may set up it by the Homebrew Channel, or sideload it utilizing LG’s Developer Mode and webOS Dev Supervisor. Developer Mode installations require periodic session renewal, although, together with when the Homebrew Channel is put in by that technique.

The developer has additionally submitted PlxNative to LG for official retailer assessment. There’s no phrase but on when, or if, will probably be accredited.